This is am interesting read. I loved the aspect of certain people in the village having the knowledge to take care or handle the beast. The daughter's power was a nice twist too. What followed broke my heart and for that alone I want to see how this character manages to get past it.

This story is driven primarily through the artwork, with relatively simple text. It felt like something I could recommend to fans of AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER, and I look forward to seeing how the story progresses. It was interesting enough that I want to pick up the original novel to compare.

A moving story about a young girl whose life changes when her mother is framed for killing a group of Toda, giant alligator like beasts that are ridden into battle.

When her mother is punished, Elin comes to realise that she herself is actually an outsider with a different lineage and tribe, and this comes with special abilities. She finds herself in a quest to avenge her mother and to find out who she really is and why she also has such a strong connection to the magical Toda.

Emotive, beautifully drawn with a sense of adventure and a journey of personal discovery.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Netgalley Review

Star Rating: ★★★

Worth the read, not my favorite, not my least favorite. Just a solid middle of the road read.

Like always read it and decide for yourself!

Reading this gave me such nostalgia to my childhood. The arts style felt so familiar and comforting; SO familiar it almost questioned if I had already read this series before. I am a sucker for mythical beasts or animals in general (to be frank) and the beast in this story were drawn with such care, even though they look identical to animals we can see in the real world the art created this magical effect and even though the animals looked familiar you can just tell that they aren't and that there is a larger story afoot.
A mother taken from her daughter, a daughter desperate attempt to save her and the town shrouded in lies and mystery. I simply can not wait to read the next volume.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

The Beast Player 1 by Nahoko Uehashi & Itoe Takemoto was an ambitious, historical fantasy manga about a young girl who is learning the ways of beasts until tragedy strikes and she is separated from her home. I really liked the art in this volume and the beginning of the story really intrigued me, however, I quickly lost interest, until the end came, and I was left feeling unsatisfied somehow. Whether this was due to the pacing of this volume in particular, my attention span, or my lack of connection to the characters, is yet to be seen. I barely remember anything about it now. I'm sure there are people out there who will love this, but for now, this was not quite for me.

Thank you so much for letting me read this.

The beast player manga was amazing. I didn't even know that it was turned in manga until now. I love the characters and way they were draw. They emotions that was showed for each other one was good. I love Elin how she cared for mother like her mother did same for her. Elina was willing do anything to save her mother to be with because she is the only family she has left. I can't wait to read the Novel and continue to read the manga as well.

I loved reading this book. I think the combination of text & image is very well done as we are introduced into the world of the beast player.
It is a harsh and harrowing world we are introduced to where xenophobia rules and everyone is strongly hemmed in by societal rules.
And yet below all this, lives have to be lived as our main character sets out onto her own journey to understand more of who she is and where she might fit in.
I have been aware of the book for a while and always wanted to read it. Now that I've the seen the beauty the story holds, specially the care & concern for the natural world it includes, I will head back to the book and finally read it.

First a BIG thank you to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher for this ARC.

Man!
This one just grabs you by the collar and drags you through the book on a high speed train!!!
It was incredible. Even though you start of a bit slow whit some setting and general information. This just takes you on a heartfelt journey leaving you craving for more.
I love how the bee keeper was drawn, after the harshness of the previous characters (except for the mother and Elin) the way the bee keeper came across was all tender gentleness and lovingly.
The art style(s) were absolutely stunning!
The story is just captivating!
I really wanna know how the story develops!

I love I love I love I loved it. The art is superb. The writing style, the story line. It was so good I enjoyed reading it 💕💕

Digital only at present release so far as I can see. A good story, artwork, the development and potential. The difficulty of this is that it is clearly a first part of a longer story. So 4/5 for the potential, writing, artwork, characters so far it goes, Will see if the rest is on here...

“[...] worrying about what other people think really holds back the imagination.” #TheBeastPlayer #NahokoUehashi

Some time ago, we are talking about years here, I read two books of “The Beast player” written by Nahoko Uehashi and it was truly beautiful. There is so much to love in this story. This is one of those rare books that I would highly recommend to read for everyone (apart from very young children maybe, due to deaths and mating acts).

I was so happy to find out that there is a graphic novel out there now. It was incredible to finally see the beasts and the whole world, I really can’t wait for more, as with the story developing, more magical beasts appear.

For such a short graphic novel, it has captured all the main points, and we get the same feeling as from the book, which is great as graphic novels tend to feel very rushed, which was not the case here.

Incredible storytelling and interesting art. I really cannot wait to get my hands on the next volume. I would love to watch an anime for this.

The Beast Player was one of my absolutely favorite reads during college! I was so excited to see the adaptive Manga counterpart. Since it had been so long since I've read the novel, it felt a little like reading it for the first time again. And for the second time, I fell in love with the story and the characters. This would make an amazing Ghibli film!

"The Beast Player" is my first manga by Nahoko Uehashi and Itoe Takemoto. The description and the illustration style peaked my interest.

The first pages of Volume 1 are colored and gave me the perfect atmosphere for the setting and story. Over all the illustration style impressed me very much because it is clean and detailful at the same time.

I also liked how the protagonist was characterized on the way and made me like her a lot. The background story of her mother was also interesting with the clan and their mission.

But I had a lot of problems with understanding the world building. The "monster" were indistingueshible for me and the build up of the village and their politics are not perfectly explained. At the end of the volume I was still a little bit confused. On the other hand I like it if there is not to much information dump.

All in all I coulnd't grasp exactly what the story wants - what kind of balance between fantasy, action, lore and slice of life is the aim of it.

A friend of mine said that there is also a book and maybe I will check that one out.

this was an interesting read, and i found the combination of the story and the art style compliment each other. We follow Elin as she loses her mother and then finds a new place to live which is totally different to what she expects. This is a manga series which I will be continuing with when I have the time for some new things

This was a very easy read. I love the relationship, between characters and creatures.

The art style to this is beautiful. I will be reading the other volumes when they are published.

It's intriguing! Even though there happens quite a lot in this first volume we don't really have the background yet. Elin is rather pitiable, being orphaned like this but I guess she found a good caretaker.
So far I only new the manga and didn't know it was adapted from a noval and that there is even an anime. I guess I'm gonna try them out as well.

Wow, what a solid intro. Having read a zillion manga in the past, I'm surprised that The Beast Player seems so unique - can't think of anything it feels like in comparison. The story begins in a melancholy way, with a young girl named Elin tragically losing someone important to her in a desperate act of love. She has a connection with the serpent-like Toda that she must keep a secret above all else, and soon finds herself far from home after a heartbreaking scene. Volume 1 ends shortly after so this edition can likely be seen as the intro for the wider, 11-vol story, and I'm interested to see what happens next.

I realized after reading this that it's based on the same novel as the popular Kemono no Souja Erin anime (licensed as Erin and streamed on Crunchyroll when it aired), so if you're familiar with the anime, you'll recognize the story here. It's unclear to me why the Kodansha translation chose Elin instead of the previously licensed translation Erin for the MC.

The art is quaint and pretty though the character designs feel slightly unpolished.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for the opportunity to read this copy.

I enjoyed this is so much! I really liked the art style, I think its simplicity helped enhance the storyline and you could really feel the characters emotions. I haven’t read the original book so can’t make any comparisons but I’m really enjoying the storyline so far and feel the pacing is good. I always appreciate it when there’s enough suspense and intrigue to make you want to continue with the series but not a massive cliffhanger. I’ll be asking my library to get the rest of the series in as it comes out so I can continue with the story!